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Redefining Global Learning: Essential Outcomes of Liberal
Education
Kevin HovlandDirector, Global Learning and Curricular Change
Caryn McTighe MusilSenior Vice President
Office of Diversity, Equity, and Global Initiatives
The Association of American Colleges and Universities
NAFSA Conference, May 26, 2009
Goals and Activities
Audience Profile 5 mins
What is Liberal Education 10 mins
Defining Outcomes for Global Learning and Q&A 15 mins
Global Learning Task Force Exercise 30 mins
Strategies to Get There 25 mins
Conclusion and Resources 5 mins
What is Liberal Education?
By its nature . . . liberal learning is global and pluralistic. It embraces the diversity of ideas and experiences that characterize the social, natural, and intellectual world. To acknowledge such diversity in all its forms is both an intellectual commitment and a social responsibility, for nothing less will equip us to understand our world and to pursue fruitful lives. . . . Liberal learning is society’s best investment in our
shared future.
The Principles of Excellence
Principle One: Aim High—and Make Excellence InclusiveMake the Essential Learning Outcomes a Framework for the entire
Educational Experience, Connecting School, College, Work, and Life
Principle Two: Give Students a CompassFocus Each Student’s Plan of Study on Achieving the Essential
Learning Outcomes—and Assess Progress
Principle Three: Teach the Arts of Inquiry and InnovationImmerse All Students in Analysis, Discovery, Problem Solving, and
Communication, Beginning in School and Advancing in College
College Learning for the New Global Century
The Principles of Excellence
Principle Four: Engage the Big QuestionsTeach through the Curriculum to Far-Reaching Issues—
Contemporary and Enduring—in Science and Society, Cultures and Values,
Global Interdependence, the Changing Economy, and Human Dignity and
Freedom
Principle Five: Connect Knowledge with Choices and ActionPrepare Students for Cit izenship and Work through Engaged and Guided
Learning on “ Real-World” Problems
Principle Six: Foster Civic, Intercultural, and Ethical LearningEmphasize Personal and Social Responsibility, in Every Field of Study
Principle Seven: Assess Students’ Ability to Apply Learning to Complex
ProblemsUse Assessment to Deepen Learning and to Establish a Culture of Shared
Purpose and Continuous Improvement
College Learning for the New Global Century, 2007
What is Global Learning?
Global learning asks students to approach the world’s challenges and opportunities from multiple perspectives
Global learning encourages students to wrestle with the ethical implications of differential power and privilege
Global Learning, linked to Diversity, Identity, and
Citizenship
Challenges students to explore the relational nature of their identities—identities that are variously shaped by currents of power and privilege
Encourages students to read back and forth from multicultural US democracy to broader interconnected and unequal world
Where Does Global Learning Occur?
Such an approach ensures that global learning is not seen as something that occurs only abroad or as something that relates to students from other places
Global learning occurs everywhere and is relevant to all our students
Global learning engages students with real world
questions
What does it mean to be a responsible citizen in today’s global context?
How should one act in the face of large unsolved global problems?
At its best, global learning . . .
Integrates curricular and experiential learning
Provides intellectual coherence and integrity to the curriculum
Bridges the major and general education
Is disciplinary and interdisciplinary
Global Outcomes
Many areas of knowledge and intellectual skills are addressed by common learning outcomes.
18%
33%
39%
48%
57%
68%
68%
70%
71%
72%
Proportion saying their institution’s common set of learning goals or outcomes addresses each area of learning/intellectual skills & ability
Areas of Knowledge
Humanities
Science
Social sciences
Global/world cultures
Mathematics
Diversity in U.S.
Technology
U.S. history
Languages
Sustain-ability 49%
51%
52%
53%
59%
59%
62%
69%
71%
74%
77%
Intellectual Skills/Ability
Writing skills
Critical thinking
Quantitative reasoning
Oral communication
Intercultural skills
Information literacy
Ethical reasoning
Civic engagement
Application of learning
Research skills
Integration of learning
In 2006 business executives felt the following areas were most in need of
increased emphasis :
Science and technology (82% should place more emphasis)
Applied knowledge in real-world settings through internships and other hands-on experiences (73%)
Critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills (73%)
Communication skills (73%)
Global issues (72%)
Best Practices
AAC&U’s Mellon Foundation research revealed what was not adequate in our earlier curricular solutions for global learning.
Two pieces of good news
from the research:
• Awareness of Global Interdependence:
A large (and growing) number of liberal arts colleges specifically
indicate in their mission statements that their graduates should be
prepared to thrive in a future characterized by global
interdependence.
• Awareness of the Interdisciplinary Challenge:
Those institutions that embrace global education have recognized
its interdisciplinary nature and, therefore, the fundamental
challenges posed by disciplinary structures and the need for
significant faculty development.
Four disturbing findings that require action:
Lack of Effective Interdisciplinary Curricular Structures: There is little evidence that students are provided with multiple, robust, interdisciplinary learning opportunities at increasing levels of intellectual challenge to ensure that they acquire the global learning professed in mission statements.
Inadequate Focus on Interdependence: The overwhelming number of students satisfy global awareness requirements within general education by taking a single course on some aspect of non-Western culture, thus avoiding interdependence as an object of study itself and reinforcing a fractured view of the global community.
Four disturbing findings that require action:
Separation of U.S. and Global Diversity: The idea that the United States somehow stands outside of global analysis is reinforced within general education programs that treat U.S. diversity requirements and global awareness requirements as discrete, unlinked units.
Humanities-Centered Approach: Science is largely missing as a site for global learning.
Additional challenges for global learning:
• Narrow Scope of Existing Global Education: Global education is overwhelmingly approached in cultural terms rather than through a focus on such issues as economic disparities, environmental sustainability, health and HIV/AIDS, security, human rights.
• Compartmentalization of Global Learning: Global learning is often defined as a desired outcome of general education, but is utilized neither as a frame for the design of coherent, integrative general education curricula nor as a way to link general education and learning in the majors.
• Ambiguity of Social Responsibility and Civic Engagement in Global Learning:While social responsibility and civic engagement are often cited as markers of successful student preparation for global interdependence, these learning outcomes are poorly defined and not well integrated into global components of the curriculum.
Additional Challenges
Overemphasis on Study Abroad Programs: Study abroad programs, the primary mechanism by which students experience foreign cultures, can be excellent vehicles for global learning, but they are not inherently so. Moreover, the vast majority of students across all sectors in higher education (well over 90 percent) either lack access to high-quality study abroad opportunities or choose to forgo them.
• Academic Structure of Study Abroad Curricula: For those students who participate in study abroad programs, the experience is often disconnected from their subsequent studies.
New Directions for Integrative Studies
Newly adopted mission:
The Integrative Studies program aims to prepare Otterbein undergraduates for the challenges and complexity of a 21st century world. It foregrounds interdisciplinary and integrative skills, competencies,and ways of knowing and is committed to the premise that one’s learning should serve and shape one’s responsibilities in and to the world.
Otterbein College
Goals and Learning Outcomes(Otterbein College)
GOAL ONE: To inspire intellectual curiosity about the world as it is and a deeper understanding of the global condition.
Outcomes:Students grasp the significance of past and present global interconnections and interdependences in the human, natural and physical worlds.
Students recognize the interactive and dynamic relationship of global and local issues or problems.
Students understand sustainability as an economic, social and environmental practice.
Students imagine and explore likely and alternative global futures.
Goals and Learning Outcomes(Otterbein College)
GOAL TWO: To assist students in cultivating intercultural knowledge and competencies.
GOAL THREE: To promote active and critical reflection on the human self and its place in the world.
Outcomes:Students study the self and the ways in which self is situated in human, physical and natural worlds.
Goals and Learning Outcomes(Otterbein College)
GOAL FOUR: To challenge students to critically examine their ethical choices and responsibilities for a global context.
Outcomes:Students affirm the value of an enlarged ethical responsibility to other persons, the natural world, and future generations.
Students explore and engage their relationship to the global public good.
Students explore and engage the larger goals of human and ecological flourishing.
Students appreciate sustainability as an economic, social and environmental value.
Goals and Learning Outcomes(Otterbein College)
GOAL FIVE: To encourage purposeful public engagement and social responsibility.
Outcomes:Students acquire intellectual and practical skills necessary for meaningful work and active participation in the local community and the larger world.
Students explore multiple and evolving forms of civic identification and belonging, with particular attention to the practice of citizenship in local, national and global contexts.
Students explore the purpose of responsiveness and value of action in the face of the pressing problems of the 21st century.
Students come to see themselves as responsible, engaged and informed persons, capable and willing to act in ways that will improve or reshape the world.
Innovative programs and practices are emerging that expand global learning in the in the curriculum and co-curriculum.
Additional Multiple Locations
Local/global connections
Overarching organizing principles for general education
Pathways and organizing principles in the major
Global learning in schools and divisions
Coordinating student and academic affairs
Comprehensive campus-wide learning goals
Multiple Locations
First year seminars Vertical curriculums Capstone courses/culminating experiences Service Learning/Community-based research Thematic tracks and clusters Living/learning resident life programs Writing Seminars Math Across the Curriculum Campus-wide events/common book
Outcomes of Global Learning
Decision Making
Communicating in 2nd Language
Tolerance for ambiguity
Understanding pace of change
Inteconnections
Powers of observation
Understanding own culture
Intercultural Competence
Outcomes Cont.
Analytical skills
Understanding problems thatr cross boundaries
Interdisciplinary skills (students and fac)
Being knowledgeable about other cultures (literate about cultures on own terms)
Developmental skills (leadership, resilience, conflict resolution)
Community building skills for common purposes
Outcomes (cont.)
Geography and shifting borders
History (legacies that affect dynamics today)
Identifying commonalities and understanding differences
Kevin Hovland, Director of Global and Curricular Change
Caryn McTighe Musil, Senior Vice President
(Each in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Global Initiatives, AAC&U)
www.aacu.org
